


when the meaning is gone there is clarity

by Avonya



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Gen, Infinity War, Introspection, Predictions for how Sony deals with Peter now, SM:Hoco, Thinking, and some MCU characters, dreams of an alternate universe, references to, the Netflix crew, the next Spider-Man movie: and it was all a dream, venom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 11:40:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20777963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avonya/pseuds/Avonya
Summary: Peter wakes up from a nightmare to the soft ache in his chest of something missing.(The MCU is just a dream, now.)





	when the meaning is gone there is clarity

**Author's Note:**

> and it was ~all a dream~
> 
> Title’s from Moment’s Silence by hozier because that’s my default title man. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Peter wakes up from a nightmare to the soft ache in his chest of something missing. 

He lays there for a while, hands fisted in the blankets, and try’s to remember what he was even doing. 

The nightmare didn’t start out like a nightmare. It didn’t end like one, either, but somehow Peter knew that it was. 

The — dream? Nightmare?— whatever it was, started with Uncle Ben dying. And it was as terrible as it always was, but the dream continued, full of days of homework and nights of being Spider-Man and the best part, the part that made it not completely a nightmare, or just burning nothing, was the fact that he had _help._

Peter was not the only super hero swinging around New York. Sure, Peter’s pretty sure if he needed help he could get the four people running around elsewhere in the city, but that’s not the same. 

No, in the dream, Peter had _allies. _Iron Man, a genius with a weird flying suit, and Captain America, a man from the forties, and the Black Widow, a woman with—

With—

Peter frowns. There were more, he remembers there were more, but the longer he’s awake the more the dream fades. 

But the bad parts still stick with him. Peter remembers the feeling of being trapped under a building, paying for someone (who’s?) else’s mistakes as he screamed and screamed and was entirely alone. And maybe that’s not unfamiliar, but the raw terror of it—

Fades, like dandelions on a breeze, and the terror is gone, but there was worse in the nightmare. 

Because he died in the nightmare. Peter remembers being on an alien planet, fighting a very bad guy, and then collapsing as static raced it’s way through his bones and out his skin, and Peter pleaded to— 

Peter doesn’t remember what he was begging, or who he was begging to, and he knows that he was clinging to someone’s arms as he died but he doesn’t know who and just the thought of it kind of makes him want to cry. 

“Peter!” Aunt May calls, cutting through whatever was left of the dream. “You’ll be late for school if you stay in bed much longer!”

“Coming,” Peter calls back, much quieter than she did. But he’s glad for the interruption, because now he can’t remember why he was so distressed. 

Did someone leak his social, or something? Was that how the dream ended?

Peter sighs and gets up, kicking off his tangled sheets. He stumbles to the kitchen and pours himself an extra large bowl of cereal, and idly watches the news as he eats it. 

There was some kind of fire in some lab in San Francisco, apparently. And there’s maybe even an alien running around, biting heads and wrecking shit. Peter wonders if the two are related. 

People are freaking out, of course, because the world Peter lives in is a world where more bad guys got powers than good guys, and as far as he knows there’s no super powered good guys in San Francisco. 

“You think that’ll be your problem?” Aunt May asks, leaning over Peter as she braces herself against the couch’s back to put her shoes on. 

“Only if it comes over here,” he says, and May kisses the top of his head. 

Aha. Right answer, Peter thinks, and turns around to watch May gather her things. 

“How long’s your shift?”

“Overtime,” she says, frowning slightly. May fishes through her purse until she finds a twenty, and triumphantly slams it on to the kitchen counter. “Don’t be out too late, it’s a school night. Buy yourself some dinner with this, not computer parts. Anything I’m missing?”

“Lock the door behind me?” Peter suggests, crossing past her to put his empty bowl into the sink. That’s a problem for future him, since current him needs to get a move on if he wants to catch up with Harry before school starts. 

“That’s it,” May says, smiling, and she crosses the kitchen to kiss his forehead again. “See you tonight!”

“Bye!” 

Peter watches as the door shuts behind her with a solid click. He looks back over to the television, now playing a blurry shot of what is, apparently, the new alien of San Francisco. 

Peter firmly tells himself it’s not his problem. Besides, it’s not like he has the resources to fight an alien, if it _did_ make its way to New York. 

The Peter that had that lived in a dream world. 

Peter sighs, and prepares himself to get ready for school in the real world, and the new sun shines a new light through the windows above him. 

**Author's Note:**

> What’d you think? Leave me a comment and say it ;)


End file.
